Man sentenced in Hazle Twp. shooting

James Halpin, Wilkes-Barre Citizens' Voice

Saturday

Jun 2, 2018 at 8:24 PMJun 2, 2018 at 8:44 PM

WILKES-BARRE — A man accused of opening fire on a loaded vehicle during a dispute over a parking spot and shooting a passenger in the head pleaded guilty Friday to aggravated assault and was immediately sentenced to up to 13 years in prison.

Lizandy A. “Lee” Trejo, 28, pleaded guilty to the assault charge as well as a count of illegal firearms possession and was sentenced to 6½ to 13 years in prison.

According to prosecutors, Trejo opened fire with a semi-automatic pistol on a 2015 Dodge Dart occupied by five people on Ebervale Road in Hazle Twp. early the morning of Nov. 8, 2015.

Witnesses previously testified that a group of people planned to hang out at the home of Ashley Bianco, who had tended bar at Bunker’s earlier that night. Her boyfriend, Trejo, picked her up and brought her home, finding the car with the others had already arrived but was parked sideways, Bianco previously testified. They asked the driver, Andrew Romero, to move, she said. Romero went down the street and did a U-turn before pulling alongside Trejo’s car, according to witnesses. Bianco said the “boys got attitude with each other” before Trejo pulled a gun and opened fire on the fleeing vehicle. The gunshots hit the rear window, trunk and rear driver’s side wheel of the vehicle, and injured Doris Rivera, who required eight staples to close her head wound.

Trejo pleaded guilty in the case last year but then balked at the sentence he might receive and withdrew his plea. He pleaded guilty Friday to the same charges as last time and received the minimum guideline sentence he faced under terms of the plea deal. As part of his sentence, Trejo will be required to pay $6,100 in restitution and to have no contact with the victims.

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